Throwin' the Bones and the Stones

My Grandfather taught me the fundamentals of Craps when I was about 8 years old. My Mom was not pleased with this set of lessons, but I liked throwing those red cubes against a wall in the garage while Grandad schooled me on the Pass line and how to "fade" a bet. That is back alley craps. I refined my game at the tables of Atlantic City and Vegas....playing the Casino version. I think it is the most "fun" game in the house. People at Blackjack are all so serious and cannot help but criticize some tourist rube who takes a hit when the "book" says you shouldn't..they gripe and hunch over and grind.
At the Craps table, you can jump up and down and hoot and hug a leather faced 78 year old Filipino man who is wearing a sleeveless Molly Hatchet T-shirt because he just rolled his point of 8 the hard way and you had odds on the Pass line and a 20 dollar hard eight! There is simply more fun and energy at a hot Craps table.
When you live 60 miles from AC a Sportsman sometimes feels like hitting the tables. As this is Memorial Day weekend, and the "official" start of Summer, the Casinos will be packed. What pisses me off is the way the casinos skew their table limits on big weekends. For example, you will be damn lucky to find any table, Blackjack or craps, under a $25.00 minimum. The issue is that when you play Craps you cannot really play a single bet. At a $5.00 Crap table any decent player is going to have at least $25.00 or more on the table. The Blackjack player can likewise play a hand with a $25.00 chip. However, when you make the Craps minimum $25.00, you cannot really play effectively without at least $100.00 or more. So, trhe Casino creates a de facto prohibition from playing Craps because of this counter-intuitive minimum scheme on weekends. Yeah, I know they think a high Blackjack minimum keeps out some of the riff raff....but it unfairly penalizes Craps players and ultimately loses flush players for the House. So I probably will not head to AC this weekend but I will smile when I recall the story of my Grandfather winning his neighbor's car in a garage Craps game at a neighborhood cocktail party while the wives gossiped in the living room and the men sucked on Pall Mall and Camel non filters and drank the hard stuff.. They were all pretty stoked with Bourbon that evening according to Grandad and that particular wagered vehicle bet was forgiven the next morning when heads had cleared.